GTA 6: 9 Ways Rockstar Could Potentially Ruin The Game

Hot on the tails of the recent leak from TechRadar that GTA 6 is indeed under development, we have an article from What Culture [page not available at What Culture now] speculating on all the things that can go wrong with GTA 6 if Rockstar Games isn’t careful about handling this entry in the series.

#9 on the list is “An Increased Focus On Online Components”, which I really can’t agree with. The list author, Scott Tailford, doesn’t really mention what’s wrong with GTA Online as such, and even admits that the component has earned over $60 million in microtransactions. Yeah, there’s little doubt we’re going to see more of this in the future, not less.

#8 is “Forced Controversy”, highlighted by the torture scene in GTA V. Of course, Rockstar is no stranger to attracting controversy by its products, be it in the form of Manhunt, Bully or GTA: San Andreas’ laughable Hot Coffee controversy. This one I can agree with, although I don’t really think the torture scene in GTA V felt all that “forced”.

#7 is “A Lack of Direction & Identity” where the author highlights ludonarrative dissonance: i.e. how weird it is for Niko Bellic in GTA IV to be killing thousands of people in-game, but in cutscenes, trying to break away from a life of violence. The author feels that Rockstar is struggling to restore GTA’s identity, but if you ask me, GTA V did a really decent job of it already.

#6 is “Boring Mission Designs”, and this one I can agree with, even though I happened to not mind the shipping containers mission in GTA V. That slow submarine mission, not so much. That’s definitely something Rockstar can look into.

#5 is “Use America AGAIN”, and while I agree with this, I don’t really see it happening. The parody of American culture is so ingrained in GTA that at this point it would feel like a completely different series if Rockstar were to abandon America. Still, it would be cool to see a GTA set in London again.

#4 is “Characters Nobody Wants to Play As”, highlighted once again by Trevor. Tailford argues that the protagonists of GTA should be foils to the dark and depraved world they live in. And while that makes sense, my only response to that is that I had a hell of a time playing as Trevor and watching his antics unfold across San Andreas.

#3 is “Pointless Minigames”. This is something almost every 3D GTA game has been guilty of, and how they manage to squeeze in more minigames with every major iteration is truly impressive. That said, GTA is all about immersion in a gigantic, virtual world, and these minigames help serve that fantasy.

#2 is “Character Abilities You Don’t Use (Or Need To)”, which definitely deserves its spot here. I can barely even remember the character abilities GTA V’s protagonists had, and I absolutely do not remember using them at all, although I’m fairly certain I did. Perhaps it would be better to do away with character abilities altogether.

#1 is “A Piecemeal Story & A Rushed Ending”, where Tailford argues for a “proper story” that pays off in the end. Red Dead Redemption did it, so Rockstar definitely has the ability. It’s a question of whether they will be able to pull it off with GTA 6 or not.